Excerpt

FEEDBACK HOW TO GIVE IT HOW TO GET IT

A Writer’s Guide to Spinning Gold

ACT 1: The Process

Marco – to change the name – was a director. We had an investor, and he and I were now going through my script to create a shooting script. That’s where the director visualizes the film on the screen, shot by shot.

He was basically dictating to me, and I was helping by keeping the storyline in tact. It was a murder mystery thriller, so Marco didn’t want to accidentally show the killer in a party when he was supposed to be out strangling.

And just for the record, this was most definitely what we would call a low budget independent.

All of a sudden Marco looked up at me and said, “By the way, this character is all wrong you know. You must fix this immediately.”

Until then I was under the blissful assumption that the script was perfect. Staring at him, I had to clear my throat to ask, “W-which character?”

“Martha.”

Martha was my heroine – the main character. Suddenly I had a ton of work to do.

I nodded my head and beat a hasty retreat. I felt scared, insulted, and very upset. I’d just been harshly criticized – in my own mind – and needed to get away.

I took the evening to recover. And when the morning came, as I sat at my computer to fix the script, the second problem hit me.

I had no idea what to fix. I’d run away without asking a single question.